Running Wild

This is the second in a series of posts that will happen in rapid succession before i settle back in to a more regular posting pattern. I hope you enjoy.

Today we will talk about a subject near and dear to me, namely the Crew. Back in November the game got it´s first major content injections with the Wild Run expansion. With this came three so called extreme specs in the form of Drag, Drift and Monster truck. It also featured a new event called the Summit. This is a set of PvP and PvE challenges themed around things such as a place on the map, a car brand or a nationality. The idea is to compete on a server wide leaderboard and win parts, extreme car kits crew credits or exclusive cars. It is set up in such a way that there are a series of qualifying events throughout the month leading up to each summit. Score at least an overall bronze medal in three qualifiers and you get to enter the summit. This is not hard any anyone one want to can get their medals.

The event has a set list of game modes but the tracks change from event to event. But there will always be one event each for the new extreme specs and two time attack races.  One is open to any car of the corresponding spec and the other is locked to a specific brand of car or bike. Yes bikes have come to the Crew and they use the regular specs such a street or dirt. Each event also have a crew and a regular PvP event. And don´t worry if you do not have a garage rivaling Jay Leno, the game lends you a car for any event that you lack a car for and the PvP event put all players in equally good cars to make things even.

So all in all the Wild Run have given the Crew players something to do once they reach max level. It is still the same game but now at least there is that element of competition that the old PvP system did not deliver. They have also made it easier to connect to a PvP game, something I complained about in my original review.

But all is not sunshine and puppies, a fair number of players who bought the gold edition or the season pass felt that the Wild Run expansion should have been included in the season pass and that the fact that there is now content locked behind a paywall is something unsightly in this day and age. There has also been complaints that the bikes and the drag spec make the game pay to win since a good player can use these to gain an advantage in some races(bikes) and decimate some skills challenges (drag and bike). While this does have merit there is no actual reward beyond recognition topping these things. The final thing that get under peoples skin is the ever current presence of cheaters, previously easy to avoid and with very little impact in the game at large. The new addition of a competitive leaderboard in combination with actual prices for to top players have had them coming out of the woodwork. Ubisoft claims to be working on the issue but only time will tell. For most people the impact is minimal and only the very top percent will ever really run the risk of losing anything from these “players”.

So to cap things off the Wild Run have injected a much needed purpose in to the Crew and with the promise of more varied qualifier tracks and challenges in combination with the continued effort to introduce more cars and ways to customize them the future looks really bright for this game.